A huge area of ​​the Earth will fall silent after a “terrible” event

Millions of Australians will experience unimaginable changes when iconic animals and the sounds they make go silent. The result was modeled by an international research team that found that frogs and toads (anurans) could disappear from 33 percent of their global habitat as global temperatures continue to rise.

“People who enjoy the sounds of wildlife in their backyard will suffer,” lead researcher and Western Sydney University biology professor Nicholas Wu told Yahoo News.

“Birds will also suffer from the drying out – they will be less likely to squawk. And, of course, frogs suffer the most from this. This way the landscape will be quieter in dry conditions.”

How likely is it that frogs will go extinct?

Changes could occur by the end of the century as wet habitats turn arid. Australia will also face more droughts, which will further impact frogs.

The mapping shows communities on the east and west coasts, where the majority of Australians live, will be hit hardest. According to a 30-year average, the world has warmed by about 1.29 degrees since industrialization, and dramatic changes are expected in frog habitats once temperatures reach 2 degrees.

At this level of warming, 6.6% of habitat is predicted to be lost, but with a 4-degree increase in temperature, that figure jumps to 33.6%. And this will probably happen between 2080 and 2100.

Researchers have found that removing frogs can cause ecosystem collapse, leading to the destruction of food as they are an important prey species. Thus, the rustling in the grass caused by lizards and snakes will also cease.

Unfortunately, such dramatic changes are not difficult to imagine. Less than a decade ago, billions of bogong butterflies once migrated across Australia and they, along with the possums that eat them, are now critically endangered. And Australia experienced the world’s first mammal extinction due to climate change when the Bramble Cay melomys disappeared in 2019.

‘Scary’ future predicted as planet warms

The global risk of frogs’ impact on increasing environmental drought was published in the journal. Nature Climate Change on Monday. Wu agreed that the results of his climate change research were “scary.”

“Some water-sensitive species are at particular risk not only from temperature but also from desiccation, which is not often accounted for on a global scale,” he said.

“Australia is pretty dry on average, but if you look at coastal areas, particularly around Sydney and Brisbane, there are signs that the risk of drying will increase in the future.”

The frogs had already been decimated by chytrid fungus, a waterborne infection that has spread throughout the world, wiping out entire species, including the mountain mist frog. Alarmingly, desiccation is associated with increased mortality from chytrid, making it an “additional stressor” for sick frog populations.

And drier conditions are likely to worsen wildfire conditions. During the Black Summer, there were fears that the Watson’s tree frog had become extinct after much of its last remaining population burned down, but a small population was later discovered on a high plateau in the New South Wales National Park.

How to Give Frogs the Best Chance to Survive

Fossil fuels remain the biggest driver of climate change, and yet governments, including Australia, continue to expand production.

Wu believes finding ways to increase water supplies and permanent ponds for the frogs will give them a “better chance” of survival.

“The big problem is the use of water by people and animals. And river systems need better water quality because of the pollutants.”

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